Blood and Iron.

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A few posts back in the fitness blogs i talked about the named ‘WOD’s’ (workout of the day) of the Crossfit gyms. I mentioned there that many of the early Crossfit WOD’s had names such as ‘Fran’ which i think was one of the more well known ones. Back when i was doing weight training a lot more seriously i just called one of my workouts ‘Bastard’ because i hated it so much !. From memory that may well have been what often gets called ‘Leg’ day and is based on heavy squats. I have to say i am a poor squatter and some of that is simply structural in that i have very long levers so at least 3 primary exercises are always harder for me. Conversely and within the limitations of my back safety i was much better with the deadlift.

Blood and Iron then isn’t me going all ‘third reich’ on us and in fact its Bismarck rather than Adolf who used that expression : its just that my heavy workout always includes iron in the form of my steel olympic bar and often includes some blood as i scrape my shins accidentally with the bar. Blood and Iron then is my first named workout and is the one i now try and get done right at the beginning of the week : i just did it today. Essentially its what other people that train with weight would call an easy ‘back’ day although its a tough one for me within my limitations. What it includes is 2 primary exercises which is the deadlift with free weights and the heavy ‘rucking’ carry and then has a useful filler exercise in between sets : i just do sets of press-ups because they also rely on back stability . Today i did 4 cycles : carry, deadlift, press-ups and repeat. On the last rucking load today i carried a medium load over longer distance but did a bit of ‘attack’ on the slopes.

The next workout i am designing right now as i re-learn the moves will be called ‘Natasha’ which is a lot nicer and is a nod in the direction of a much respected and liked ex colleague. Natasha was an excellent nurse who helped me develop in my current job and thoroughly encouraged me in my quest to re-register. At the time and i think in her early 40’s (sorry if i am wrong) she was coming to the end of her nursing career and waiting to start her police training. Well she is in now and done her training and by all accounts is in her element. The connection here is that to get fit enough to pass her physical Nat had to get really fit : and i don’t mean cardio-bunny fit i mean serious fit. There was this one time when i was already in the staffroom and she came in obviously a bit sore from a workout and i asked her what she had been doing. The answer was of course leg day and she had a solid dose of DOMS afterwards. So despite me hating leg work aside from lots of walking i am going to have to design a new leg day probably around body weight (sumo) squats, KB squats, lunges and weighted single leg step-ups.

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